Estate of truck driver suing OHP

ROGERS COUNTY, Okla. -- A lawsuit has been filed against the Oklahoma Highway Patrol involving a crash last year in which one of the drivers involved was a local trooper.

Trooper Bill McClendon died in October of 2006 in a wreck near Claremore. That wreck also took the life of Ohio truck driver Hussien Osman. Now the estate of Osman is suing the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, saying Trooper McClendon was negligent and caused the crash that killed them both.

A report on the crash by the State Department of Public Safety found the truck driver was driving 15 miles per hour faster than the posted speed limit, failed to yield to an emergency vehicle, and was operating an unsafe vehicle.

OHP Captain Chris West has said McClendon’s u-turn across the interstate likely initiated the collision.

Osman’s family claims McClendon was negligent for making the u-turnOn Wednesday, a spokesman for McClendon’s family says he was just doing his job.

"The family has asked to say that Trooper McClendon was a professional trooper. He was doing his job to the best of his ability to protect the citizens of the state of Oklahoma. Hope (wife) and the children miss their father and husband very much," Mike Grimes said.

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